Port Spencer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Port SpencerSouth Australia |
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 Port Spencer
Location in South Australia
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| Postcode(s) | 5607 | ||||||||
| Elevation | 15 m (49 ft) | ||||||||
| Location | 65 km (40 mi) North of Port Lincoln | ||||||||
| LGA(s) | District Council of Tumby Bay | ||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Flinders | ||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Grey | ||||||||
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Port Spencer is a proposed grain export port development project in South Australia. The project site, previously known as Sheep Hill, is on Lower Eyre Peninsula adjacent to Lipson Cove on the western shore of Spencer Gulf.
Contents
Location and transport
The site for Port Spencer is located between Lipson Cove and Rogers Beach, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of the town of Tumby Bay. The port could be served by a 27-kilometre (17 mi) narrow gauge branchline from Ungarra on the Eyre Peninsula Railway. Lipson Cove lies immediately to the south with the proposed wharf structure 1.5 kilometres north of Lipson Island Conservation Park.
Swaffers Road was marked to become a future haul road. Centrex Metals' preferred method for the long-term transport of ore to the port was via a slurry pipeline. A desalination plant capable of producing of 5-20 gigalitres of water per year would have been required to provide the water necessary to transport the ore in a slurry to the Port Spencer site. Once the ore was dewatered, it would have been loaded onto conveyors, along a 500-metre (1,600 ft) jetty and onto capesize bulk carrier vessels.
An alternative development approach announced in November 2013 proposed the ore to be trans-shipped from a shorter jetty in barges, each carrying 15,000 tonnes. If such a method were to be employed, 12 barge-loads (round trips) would be required to fill a single Capesize vessel, with a capacity of 180,000 tonnes.
Grain-only revision
Free Eyre's 2018 revision of the Port Spencer proposal intends to have grain delivered to the port site by truck, then directly loaded onto Panamax vessels via a single 600 metre-long jetty. The jetty would be supported by ten pylons, and the total cost of the development was estimated to be $130 million AUD. Project costs had been heavily optimised over several years, down from prior estimates of $300-400 million AUD. In 2019, the proponents were seeking $10 million in Federal funding to develop a feasibility study for the project. The prospect of funding such a project was challenged by Senator Rex Patrick, who believes that supporting the Cape Hardy port proposal less than ten kilometres to the north would be a better investment.
In 2020, Peninsula Ports' revised plans for Port Spencer were made available for public comment.
In February of 2020, mining industry executive Gordon Toll was appointed to the board of directors of both Free Eyre and its subsidiary, Peninsula Ports.
Environmental approval process
The port development requires three stages of environmental approvals plus associated mine development approvals in order to proceed.
- The South Australian Development Assessment Commission deemed it appropriate for the project to produce two stages of documentation in the form of Public Environment Reports for South Australian Government approval.
- The Federal Australian Government also deemed it necessary for Centrex Metals Ltd to obtain Federal environmental approval for Port Spencer.
- The Federal Environment Department required Centrex Metals Ltd to respond to identified risks to two threatened species known to visit the region- the southern right whale and the fairy tern.
The development of Port Spencer also remains dependent on the advancement of the Fusion Magnetite Project, which requires its own environmental approvals at both State and Federal levels.
Development timeline
- 6 January 2011 - Project awarded Major Project Status by South Australian Government
- 1 June 2011 - Guidelines for Public Environment Report released
- 9 March 2012 - Stage 1 Public Environment Report released
- 15 November 2012 - Federal Environment Department determined that approval would be required
- 28 October 2013 - Federal Environment Department approved Stages 1 & 2 with conditions
Remaining approvals required
As of 4 November 2013 Centrex Metals Ltd is yet to release its Stage 2 Public Environment Report (PER) for consideration and approval by the South Australian Government. This publication is expected to detail the company's plans to construct a reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant which will return waste brine to Spencer Gulf with elevated salinity. The brine return was considered by the federal government to be a potential risk to the fairy tern, which relies on nearby populations of bait fish in order to breed successfully. Lipson Island Conservation Park is considered to be suitable breeding habitat for the fairy tern, and historical sighting records exist for the area. If fairy terns are shown to utilise Lipson Island Conservation Park for breeding, the impact of desalination brine on distribution or abundance of available prey species could adversely impact their population.
Centrex Metals Ltd is yet to demonstrate that their desalination plant's brine outflow will not adversely impact marine biota.
Alternatives
Another iron ore mining company, Iron Road Ltd, has proposed a new port to be constructed at Cape Hardy, 9 km north east of the Port Spencer site. Andrew Stocks, CEO of Iron Road, has stated that only one port is likely to be built in the area.
